


Like A Vine

by Sandrine Shaw (Sandrine)



Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Angst, Episode s4e13 The Feast of All Sinners, Hanahaki Disease, M/M, Prompt Fill, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 03:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13449567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandrine/pseuds/Sandrine%20Shaw
Summary: Niklaus' lungs feel heavy and clogged, and he wonders if this will kill him before Father does, wonders what it'll be like to choke to death on your feelings for someone you can never call yours.





	Like A Vine

**Author's Note:**

> Not a trope I thought I would ever write, and certainly not in this fandom, but hey, that's what prompt fics are for!

Niklaus is only just a boy when he coughs up the first petals, delicate and white on the ground behind the staples where he's hiding as he watches Tatia smile at something Elijah said. 

He stomps on them until they're torn under his feet, dirty and barely recognizable. Father can never know. To Mikael, it'll only be further proof that Niklaus is weak, that he's less than a man, not fit to be his son. Hanahaki is considered to be a woman's ailment, affecting silly lovelorn girls and married women who are thus punished for their improper, unrequited feelings for men who aren't their own. Warriors like Mikael take what they want, they would never let their emotions clog up their lungs and suffocate them. 

But Niklaus is nothing like Mikael, and the tiny specks of white in the dust at his feet are just further proof of his shortcomings.

Tatia's laughter rings silvery in Niklaus' ears, and when he looks up again, Elijah's hand is resting against her cheek. Niklaus' lungs feel heavy and clogged, and he wonders if this will kill him before Father does, wonders what it'll be like to choke to death on your feelings for someone you can never call yours.

#

That's not how he dies, of course. That's not how the story goes.

The flowers don't stop growing inside him over the years and decades and centuries, long after he dies and comes back to life, long after Tatia is gone. 

He keeps coughing and coughing and coughing, white gardenias and red asters and light-colored peonies, but he's stronger than the disease now, he doesn't need the breath in his lungs as an ordinary human would. It's inconvenient and painful and embarrassing, but it's not going to destroy him.

#

He doesn't understand, not really, until Katerina.

Fierce, ambitious Katerina, who looks just like Tatia and will be the perfect sacrifice. Katerina, who is _nothing_ to him, and yet bright marigold falls from his mouth when he watches her dance with Elijah.

Niklaus watches them look utterly engrossed in each other, Elijah swaying towards her at each small, faux-innocent touch of her hand, and if it wasn't for the coughs wracking his body and driving tears to his eyes, he'd rush across the room to tear out her heart right then and there, ritual be damned.

#

In Mystic Falls, half a millennium later, he chokes on the purple petals of petunia flowers that sting his throat as they come up, but the pain is nothing compared to the sting of Elijah's betrayal.

#

Through the centuries, people have learned – learned the hard way, more often than not, watching him ruthlessly punish those who dare to ask the wrong sort of question – not to comment on the flowers that keep spilling from his lips, and Hanahaki's so uncommon these days that only those who keep up with the traditions and legends of the old days know what it means. Klaus doesn't expect anyone to figure it out, until someone does.

"You're not in love with me," Hayley says when she catches him coughing tiny purple petals of hyacinths all over the compound. 

Klaus wipes his mouth and smiles at her, a show of teeth. "Are you sure, little wolf? Perhaps I'm wrecked by longing and unfulfilled desire, pining away for you." He deliberately steps into her space, aiming for intimidation, but he catches a whiff of Elijah's aftershave clinging to her and it throws him off.

Hayley scoffs at him. "Does he know?" 

Whatever she sees in Klaus gaze must be cold and hard enough to make her take a step backwards.

Klaus catches her wrist and squeezes. "No, and he never will."

He doesn't let go until Hayley nods. There's pity in her gaze and sadness, and he fights down the urge to lash out he would have given free rein with anyone else. Fortunately for him, Hayley's more tender sentiments for him never last, and it won't be long until something brutal and unforgiving he does will remind her that he's a monster who deserves every bit of pain he suffers. He will smile at her, teeth stained with the blood of the innocent, and watch her turn away in disgust. The sympathy in her eyes will wither and die, and everything will be as it should be once more.

#

Distance offers no cure, not that Klaus expected it to.

Somewhere in a bar in France, his eyes meet Elijah's across the room. His brother looks relaxed, unburdened by the troubles that used to weigh him down for so long. It's only now they've lifted that Klaus recognizes how heavy they must have been. 

Elijah smiles a polite smile and nods, no recognition in his gaze, and Klaus slinks off into the darkness. 

His throat tickles, and when the a cough ripples through him, forget-me-nots spill into his hand, leaving a bittersweet taste lingering in his mouth. 

Perhaps he should have asked Marcel to compel him too, take his memory away and with them that sad broken longing that's been growing in his chest for a thousand years now. So much depends on his ability to stay away from his siblings, and yet he already knows that when it comes to Elijah, he won't be able to keep his distance for long.

End.


End file.
